100 Themes
by Innray
Summary: 100 themes challenge featuring Allie my OC and Haymitch!  Read "My Girl" in order to meet Allie. :
1. Theme 1: Introduction

**Hello everyone! I really wanted to write more about Haymitch/Allie, especially with the great response their story got. If you haven't read it, please do!**

**Well, my idea is to write the 100ThemesChallenge...about Haymitch and Allie. One chapter for every theme. :) Wish me luck! Point of views will alternate and I'll let you all know whose PoV each chapter takes place in.**

**Theme #1-Introduction. Allie's Point of View**

"M-Mommy! I d-don't want to stay here! Why are you leaving?" I clutch at the folds of Mama's skirt and cry. She's leaving me at this strange building with all the other kids.

"Allie! You're a big girl, go talk to those girls over there! Those are the neighbors. Good-bye, honey!" She kisses the top of my head and wrenches her skirt from my grasp, smoothing out the wrinkles. I run after her and stumble, landing on my hands and knees. She doesn't turn back. I look over at the girls that she pointed out. I recognize them from down the street but I'm too shy to go and talk to them. A group of bigger kids gathers at the fence, seeing who can throw rocks the farthest. The girls my age skip over to the swingset and try pushing each other, but the swings are too high. I slump down next to the wall and curl my arms around my knees.

_I can't believe Mama left me! I don't know anybody here! This is stupid! _I look around for a moment, scared, because Daddy says that 'stupid' is a bad word. _Kindergarten's stupid. I don't know anybody. Why can't Mama and Daddy teach me how to read!_ I start to cry again and curl into a tighter ball.

"Are you okay?" I look up and there's one of the bigger boys standing over me, hands on his hips. He has dark hair that flops over his eyes and freckles. I rub my eyes and squint up at him.

"N-no! My mommy left me here!" He squats down next to me and pats my shoulder awkwardly.

"Are you in kindygarten? You prob'ly are, that's why you're cryin'." I nod. "I'm in firs' grade. What's your name? Want to be friends?"

"I'm Allie. And sure, okay!"

_"_Hi Allie! I'm Haymish. So why're you cryin'? Don't you have friends here yet?"

"Today's my first day and Mommy and Daddy left me!" I scrub at my eyes. Big girls don't cry, after all, and here I am crying.

"Won't you see them later?" I nod, and he shrugs. "So what's the problem?"

"B-because...because I am, that's why!" He laughs and tells me that that isn't a very good reason. I stick my tongue out and realize that I'm not crying anymore.

"See? Y'shouldn't cry anymore, okay?" He gets up and goes back over to his friends. I sniffle and wipe under my nose. The kindergarten teacher comes into the yard and I go to her with the other children my age.

"Bye, Allie!" I look behind me and see Haymitch waving at me. I wave back.

**I don't know how long the chapters will be, this one is kind of short though. Review! Should I even continue this?**


	2. Theme 2: Love

** Theme 2 is...Love!**

** This one's in Haymitch's point of view.**

Allie squeezes my hand and looks up at me. We've been a couple for about a month now, and I'm over at her house for dinner for the second time.

The first time was the most uncomfortable period of two hours I've ever had to endure. Her parents took turns bombarding me with questions or glaring icily at me. Allie promised that the second time wouldn't be as bad. I have my doubts, but we'll see.

"Here, you pick a program to watch. I always pick." She hands me the little remote control and I hesitantly flip through the six channels that come in, aware that her parents are huddled in the kitchen, talking about us.

"This looks good, right?" I stop on an advertisement for skin implants. Allie looks at me skeptically and shrugs.

"You planning on getting skin implants or something, Mitchie?"

"No, but I think you need some. Look at that big ol'..._thing_ in the middle of your face!" She laughs and smacks me gently.

"That's my nose, idiot! And you said just yesterday after school that you _like_ my nose. Your nose, on the other hand..." She trails off.

"Is that the best comeback you can come up with? I'm aware that my nose is slightly bigger than the average person's, but I've embraced that part of me. My nose makes me who I am." She sticks her tongue out and I lean over and kiss her nose (which I actually think _is_ a cute nose). There's an eruption of coughing from the kitchen and Allie and I both turn to see Mr. Binden standing in the doorway.

"Soup's on," he says shortly, and walks back into the kitchen.

"Can't even kiss ya..." I grumble, and Allie gives an over-exaggerated impression of someone looking for spies, then stands on her tiptoes and kisses me.

"I just kissed you, soo..." I laugh and we head into the kitchen. They have a scrubbed wooden table with four place settings. From the way Allie's nose wrinkles, whatever meat the butcher served up is not her favorite, but I don't get fresh meat often so my mouth is watering.

"What's for dinner, Daddy?" Allie seats herself and I take the chair across from her.

"Squirrel and dog."

"But there was a chicken when I checked earlier! I thought that's what we were having."

"Nope. Th' mayor came and bought the chicken. So we're having dog and squirrel casserole. If you don't like it, you can go without dinner."

"I think it looks delicious, sir!" I cut off Allie's snide retort. "Any meat's good meat to me."

"Could learn a lesson or two from your boyfriend, Allaine." The butcher's words are a mumble and I think I'm the only one to hear. Mrs. Binden flits into the room with a pitcher of milk and settles down opposite her husband. For a while, the clacking of silverware against wooden plates is the only sound. I decide quickly that maybe not any meat is good meat, because the dog is extremely tough. Allie eats all the noodles out of her serving and then picks at the rest of her meal.

"This is good, sir." I scrape the last trace of watery gravy into my spoon. "Thanks for having me over, Mrs. Binden." Allie shoves her chair away from the table and announces that she'll be walking me home.

"Be careful on the way back!" I follow Allie's quick strides out into the shop and into the cold winter evening. She takes my hand and we slowly meander back to the Seam.

"Thanks for inviting me over for dinner," I say, and realize that there's a shiny tear track on her cheek. I stop short and pull her around so she's facing me. "What's wrong?"

"I just wanted everything to b-be perfect for today's supper, b-but it wasn't! I know there was a chicken still in the shop, he j-just didn't want to 'waste it on a Seam brat'. That's what I heard him and Mama saying before you came over." She swipes at her eyes.

"Is that what you're cryin' about? That we didn't have chicken?" She hesitates, then nods.

"It's stupid, I know."

"Don't call yourself stupid. And today _was_ perfect, because I got to spend it with you." She starts to say something but I put my hand over her mouth. "I mean it. I've never had dog, so that was a new experience. Allie, _I love you_, and any day with you is perfect, no matter what happens." I kiss her and she smiles.

"Really?"

"Really."

"No, do you really love me?" I grin and give her a bear hug.

"Yup!" She squeals into my jacket and I feel her bouncing up and down.

"I love you too! I do!" We resume walking, and when we get to my front door she lets me kiss her with tongue.

I _knew_ there was a reason I fell for her.

"You look happy!" Mom greets me with a smile and brushes the snow off my jacket.

"I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!" I have the biggest smile plastered on my face and Mom laughs.

"Crazy kids!"

"Crazy in love with Allaine Binden!"

**So there's Theme 2-Love. The first time Haymitch and Allie said 'i love you' to each other :) Sorry if this chapter's kind of awkward, I didn't really have any idea how to write this one. I just winged it :D**


	3. Theme 3: Light

**Theme 3-Light**

**Allie's Point of View**

The music stops, and for a moment I'm unaware that anything has changed. I spin away from Haymitch and stop a few yards away, smiling. Nobody else is smiling.

My smile fades as I turn and see the white Peacekeeper uniform standing behind me. The man smirks and makes a stabbing motion with his right hand.

Suddenly, everything is a little too bright. The uniform, pressed and clean, is blinding, and every falling snowflake seems to be brighter than before. I notice a throbbing pain in my stomach and touch it. My hand comes away red. I meet Haymitch's eyes just before I fall. He comes and holds me. I look up at him and see his gray eyes are sparkling with tears.

"I love you, baby...Love you a whole bunch..." I reach up and try and run my hand through his crop of dark hair like I always do, but I have to take my hand away to cough. "Looks like we don't get cookies...at our wedding..."

He tells me that we'll have cookies. He reminds me that we're going to have ten kids and thirty grandkids.

I tell him we both lose.

There's a quiet voice next to him that I can't make out, but then I feel him lift me and carry me inside somewhere. I'm laid on a table. I open my eyes to see Mitchie turning away, hands pressed to the sides of his head.

"Mitchie..." I reach out and grab the end of his jacket and weakly pull him closer to me. "I love you, Haymitch!" I choke out the words and my eyes close. As if from a great distance, I hear his reply.

"I love you too, Allie. So, _so_ much." There's other sounds, but they're garbled. A door slamming, a heated argument, and the _smack_ of fist hitting face is about all I can make out. I turn away from the noise and realize I'm lighter than ever. I look up and see a blinding glow from ahead and make my way toward it. Looking back, I see Papa and Mitchie screaming at each other. I want to stop them, but something seems to pull me toward the ethereal light.

I stop struggling as I realize that I'm free from the Capitol. The light welcomes me into whatever's next.

**Yeah, it's extremely short, but whatever. Allie's dying, she wasn't thinking clearly and was slipping in and out of consciousness.**

**This is my first time writing from the point of view of a dying person! How'd I do?**


	4. Theme 4: Dark

**Theme 4-Dark**

**Point of View-Haymitch**

Night in the Capitol is different from night anywhere else.

The city itself seems to never sleep. In District Twelve, the whole town goes to sleep around the same time, so midnight is usual black as pitch and eerily quiet. In the Capitol, midnight seems to be the waking-up time for many people. I watch the people scurry into neon-covered buildings, emerging tipsier and louder than before.

No wonder they're tipsy after just ten minutes in a bar. The alcohol here is deliciously more potent and it takes less to get me plastered. Through the drink-induced haze, the colors swirl together and make new colors. I stare open-mouthed at the rainbow streaks, until a quiet voice calls to me.

"Haymitch? It's freezing, what are you doing out here?" It's Anguria, my stylist from when I was in the Games. It's been twenty years and a day since I first came here, and she's been with me the whole time. She's half-carried me back to the tribute tower from countless dive bars, while I moaned and yelled at her.

"I'm looking at this stupid goddamn city. Got a problem with tha'?" I lurch closer to the edge of the wall and she steps forward, hesitant. "Get yer han's offa me. I can take care of myself." I lean over the edge and look down at the busy sidewalk below.

"Haymitch..." A warning tone enters her voice.

"Think there's shomething to keep people from jumpin'? Like a force field, like in th' arena?" She doesn't answer. "Th' hell do they care, if tributes jump or not? Whatsit matter to them? They're gonna kill 'em all, anyway. All but one. One lucky kid gets to live. I wish I'd been kilt in th' 'rena. Woulda saved lots of people. S'not like I matter anymore. Fuckers don't give me any reason to wanna live anymore."

I lift my foot and put it up on the wall. Unsteadily, I manage to get both feet up so I'm standing right on the edge. The toes of my boots hang over the edge and little pebbles fall into the throngs of people.

I hear Anguria moving around behind me. I'm guessing she's trying to figure out what to do.

My voice softens. "Tell me not to jump. Please, 'Guria, gimme a reason not to. One reason." No response. My eyes burn with tears that haven't fallen for years. I haven't cried in years. "There's no reasons. Nothing." I have one foot over the edge when she speaks up.

"You haven't had a winning tribute yet."

"Thanks for making me feel _so much_ better." I take another step toward the ledge and out of the corner of my eye, I see her rush forward.

"Wait! Haymitch, wait. Let me finish." I pause. She seems to struggle with words for a second. "Please, get down!"

"Fine." I jump down and she reaches forward, apparently to put her arm around me, but I turn away. "Just tell me whatever you wanted to say."

"You haven't had a winning tribute. Let me bet with you: If you don't have a winning tribute by the next Quarter Quell, in five years, go ahead and do whatever you want to yourself. But if you _do _get a winning tribute, you have to never, _ever_ act suicidal again. _Ever_." I don't answer, and she takes my silence as agreement. "So! Do we have a deal, Mr. Abernathy?" Anguria holds her hand out and I shake it. She turns to leave, then hesitates.

"What do y' want now?"

"Just making sure you weren't jumping, Mitch." She winks and struts away. I look out over the cityscape again.

She never said anything about not drinking. I walk away. The knife in my belt is a weighty reminder of what else I can do to myself without breaking our bet.


	5. Theme 5: Seeking Solace

**Theme Five: Seeking Solace**

**Another chapter in Haymitch's point of view, but they're a lot of themes that match him a lot.**

My throat burns. I slam the empty bottle onto the counter, making the other two bottles there rattle. The bartender lifts an eyebrow and I hesitate. _Allie and Mom are at home waiting_...I shrug and wave him over.

"Gimme 'nother'." He rolls his eyes and removes another bottle of white liquor from the cabinet, but pauses before giving it to me.

"You smell like a drunk and you're seventeen. You sure you want t' be doin' this to yourself?"

"Yesh." He slides the bottle down the counter and I clumsily catch it.

Alcohol is the only thing that's made the pain get out of my head. The physical pain is gone. The Capitol doctors and surgeons stitched me up nice and good, keeping my insides from flopping all over. The other miscellaneous scars were wiped away like they never existed.

But the actual pain? The pain that feels like it follows me, like it watches me always? That's not gone yet. Nowhere close to being gone. The pain of surviving, of knowing that I, Haymitch William Abernathy, basically killed forty-seven other people. Not intentionally, and I didn't even kill the great majority of them, but I feel like I did. I survived, and I don't know if I wanted to.

Alcohol, right now, has made the pain go away. I don't think Allie or Mom has noticed yet. Hayden had noticed. And now he's missing. My fault entirely, of course. I had to "act out" or whatever.

The cool lip of the bottle kisses mine and I tip my head back to let the fiery cold of the liquid enter my mouth and travel down, down, where it burns a fire in my stomach. I feel warm inside, and decide that three and a quarter bottles is enough. I don't want to worry Allie, that's the last thing I want.

I've decided. I'm done drinking. No more after today. Allie's going to smell it sooner or later, and she's always held people who rely on substances to get by in very low esteem. She can't stand them, and she's the one thing that's tethering me here in sanity right now. If she detests me, I don't know what I would do.

I gently stack the money I owe on the counter and leave. The autumn air has a slightly sobering effect, and I amble slowly back to Victor's Village, where one house has smoke coming from the chimney. One house has light in the windows. I come up the pathway and see Allie sitting by the fire, waiting. Mom hadn't come out of bed all day, and I suddenly feel terrible for leaving Allie here. I'd left with Cal and Jack but left the search party to go to the bar.

I'm a terrible person.

Allie whips her head around as soon as the door opens and she runs and hugs me tight.

"I'm so sorry Mitchie, they'll find him soon, I know they will! Jack's a great tracker, he'll find the bastards that took Hayden and-" I cut her off by kissing her hard. She's surprised at first, but then returns my kisses.

"Please, I don't want to talk about him. I'm trying not to think about it." I look down at her and smile. "Jack'll find him. Calvin and Jack will find him." I'm reassuring both of us.

There's something else that makes the pain go away better than white liquor. Gently, I trace the outline of Allie's bottom lip and she stands on her tiptoes to brush my lips with hers. We go up to my bedroom and my pain is gone for another night.

"Stop finding comfort in alcohol, Haymitch Abernathy. You smell," she tells me afterward. I smile and promise to not drink to escape anymore.

**Another shorty one, but I like these challenges!**


	6. THeme 6: Break Away

**Theme 6: Break Away**

**Allie's PoV**

"I _hate_ you, Haymitch William Abernathy!" The door bangs shut behind me and I storm out of his house angrily. Behind me, I hear the door bang open again.

"I hate you too! We're _done_!" he shouts, and I refuse to look back at him, to give him that satisfaction of me missing him at all. Because I don't. He's a liar and a jerk and I'm _done_ with him. "Don't ever come back here again! I don't want to see you ever again!"

"I don't _ever_ want _anything_ to do with you either, you cheating pig!" I start running and by the time I'm out of the Seam, I'm crying. _I can't believe he did this! He said he loved me!_

Rosie Cummings told me that she saw Haymitch kissing Myla Cather last week behind the gymnasium at school.

_There goes our perfect six months, the lying jerk_. Myla didn't even try to cover it up when I asked her about it at school.

_"Hey, Myla? So, Rosie told me that she saw you and Mitch together behind the gym the other day..."_

_"Yeah, so what? He said you're too frigid."_

_ "He what?"_

_ "Yeah, he told me that he expected a little more than just kissing, seeing as you've been together six months. I was willing to give it to him but he chickened out. Said he didn't want to cheat."_

_ "Because he wouldn't do that to me!"_

_ "Why don't you ask him, Miss Frigid?"_

I guess that maybe attacking him with angry words as soon as I saw him today wasn't the best idea.

_"What the hell, Mitchie? Rosie said you and Myla were kissing behind the gym and Myla told me that you said I'm frigid!"_

_ "What are you-?"_

_ "I'm _not_ frigid, Haymitch. You said you didn't want to have sex yet either! Did you lie to me?"_

_ "Well, it'd be nice, but I didn't-"_

_ "Yes, you did! Rosie _saw _you!"_

Maybe listening to him would've been a good idea too. He got really angry and we started screaming at each other. He accused me of being too paranoid and I kept riding him about Myla until he finally confessed.

_"You want me to be cheating on you? Fine, I admit! I kissed Myla! She's the worst kisser I've ever seen and I didn't like it! We didn't even do anything!"_

_ "Cheating _pig_!" I run at him and try hitting him as hard as I can._

_ "Dammit, Allie, stop it!" He grabs my wrists and holds me away from him._

Absently, I rub my wrists where his hands had been. They're still a little red but it's beginning to fade. I rub my eyes and I'm glad it's rainging so that nobody can see how much I'm crying.

I _hate_ Haymitch William Abernathy. I never, ever want _anything_ to do with him _ever_ again.

_"Would you let me explain?"_

_ "What's there to explain! You just admitted to cheating on me with that skank Myla! She sleeps with everyone!"_

_ "And you're frigid!"_

_ "Asshole!"_

_ "Bitch!"_

I didn't realize that I'd gotten home until I heard my father asking me if I was okay.

"Allie? Honey, what's wrong?" The tenderness in my father's voice is something that I haven't heard in years, not since I was little. The tears in my eyes blur my vision and I can just barely make out his big outline rushing over to me. Whoever the customer at the counter is sets his money on the counter and brushes past me on his way out.

"Huh-huh-huh-he's a ch-cheating lying puh-_pig_," I spit out and bury my face in my father's shoulder. "I huh-_hate_ him!"

"Xavier, what's wrong?" The _click _of my mother's shoes enters the room and my father tells her what I'd told him.

** "**She and her boyfriend are in a fight."

** "**We're _not_ in a fight. We're _done_." My mother sighs.

"Good. Enough of the business with him. You'll find a good town boy who will treat you better."

"Valery!" My father turns away from me and I know they're having one of their silent conversations. The conversations that involve facial expressions and are usually about me.

** "**So what if they just broke up? It's about time she's got her head on straight and realized that that boy would just screw her over. Every Seam boy is the same." I wipe my nose.

"I'm going upstairs...Save me a plate. I'm not hungry right now." I slouch away and stumble upstairs, the tears still flowing freely. Without bothering to take boots and socks off, I get under my blankets and burrow into a cocoon of warmth. I sniffle and look at the little picture of Haymitch and I a few months ago. He'd spent all of his money to get a real picture in a frame for me and it was my favorite possession.

I hurl the picture, frame and all, against the wall and have a little moment of morbid joy when the glass shatters and _tink_s against the floorboards.

** "**Allie? What was that?" My father's voices floats up the stairs.

"Nothing, Papa. I dropped something."

The next morning, I wake up to a tapping sound on my window. _Stupid birds_. I fling open the window and open my mouth to shoo them away when I look down.

Haymitch stands under in the front of my house with a handful of rocks. He prepares to throw another one, but then looks up and drops the rock.

"Allie! Your dad wouldn't let me in. And neither would your mom. And my mother said that she won't let me back in the house until I've properly apologized. She's pretty mad, I think. And I'm kind of cold...My mom kicked me out here at six o'clock." I cross my arms and don't say anything.

"Okay, well...I just wanted to let you know that I'm really sorry for kissing Myla. I really wish I hadn't, and I'm sorry for doing that to you. I don't hate you and I never could, because you're my favorite person in the world." He rubs his arms and a cloud of fog exhales from his mouths as he sighs.

"Really," I say indifferently, and go to close the window. It's very cold for September, and any heat from my bed has been seeped out by the chilly air.

"Yes, really! Allie, you know I love you and I'm so sorry and I don't think your frigid, and you're not a bitch. You're just shy, and I'm just a stupid hormonal idiot. Can we please undo our fight? Pretty please?" He gets on his knees outside and I have to try not to laugh.

"You're really sorry? You're never going to do it again?"

"Yes! I promise!"

"Throw your shoes up here."

"What?"

"Do it, Haymitch William, or you'll never be forgiven." Immeadiately I dodge as his boots fly through my window and clunk onto the floor.

"Okay what was that for? My feet are freezing!"

"So I know you really mean it. You can go shoeless for one week, and go _everywhere_ without them, and then maybe you can be forgiven."

"Yes ma'am..." He gets up and leaves the yard. I stash his boots behind my dresser and shut the window. _Maybe that's not the best though-out plan, but it's eight in the morning._ Besides, I was willing to forgive him as soon as he said that I was his favorite person.

**Merr I think that these are getting worse. :(**

** Please review if you're reading these!**


	7. Theme 7: Heaven

**Theme 7: Heaven**

**Allie's Point of View **

"Where am I? Hello? Hey, is anyone here?" My voice escalates as panic sets in. I don't know where I am. I remember Haymitch carrying me into Ree's house, the apothecary, but after that I don't remember anything. It's very bright here, and everything is white. I look down and see that the jacket and skirt I had been wearing is gone, replaced by a flowing white dress.

"Hi, Allie! It's good to see you again." I whirl around and see Maysilee standing behind me. She waves; tentatively I wave back.

"Hi, Maysilee...Um, where are we?" She giggles.

"Haven't you guessed yet?"

"Well I've decided that I'm asleep but other than that, I have no idea."

"You're not asleep, silly, you're _dead_." She smiles. "Isn't it great?"

_Dead_.

"I'm WHAT?" I shriek. "No, no way, no way I'm dead, I _can't_ be dead, that Peacekeeper just pricked me with something, I'm not dead, nope, I don't believe you." I clamp my hands over my ears and talk louder to drown out her explanation. "I'm not dead! I'll wake up soon because I'm _not dead_!"

Gently, Maysilee removes my hands from my ears. "Yes, you are. Want proof?" She points at a floating cloud and I look at it. I see everything that had happened in the square from a birds-eye view. There's Haymitch and I dancing, and then he spins me away and the Peacekeeper catches me. There's where he pricked me, and then I fall. I close my eyes.

"Is that why you're here?" I ask my friend, with my eyes still shut tight.

"Yup, and I'm supposed to get you 'acquainted' with being dead and how it works up here. We can do that later, we've got years and years!" She laughs again.

"Aren't you...upset about dying?"

"Well, of course I am! But the best thing to do is just move on. Besides, it sometimes seems like I'm not really dead. You can watch what's happening with the living and there's a rumor that you can even pop into a dream or two! Well, when you've been dead long enough. Not now." He smile falters or the first time. "We two have got a while before we can do a dream-visit. I wanted to tell Milana that I was okay, but I can't. I wanted to tell her to not be mad at anyone because it isn't anyone's fault, I shouldn't have tried to get eggs from that nest. It's my fault but there's people blaming themselves. It sucks."

"Mil was pretty upset for a while. She's still upset, actually, and she hasn't been talking to anyone." I hesitantly reach out to touch Maysilee's shoulder, unsure of whether she'll be solid or not. When I find that she feels as real as she ever has, I pat her back to make her feel better. She sighs, then brightens and looks at me.

"Anyway. Wanna see what I mean about watching life?" She leads me over to another floating cloud and we look down.

"Hey, look, it's the reaping!" She points and I focus on the square. It's filled with people penned off according to age group.

"Wait, this is next year! Haymitch just got home, how can it be the reaping already?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you: Time up here doesn't run the same as it does down there. It goes a lot slower here than in real life. We could go back, if you want. It's pretty cool, you ask the cloud to go back however many years. Want to?" She starts to say the number of months, but I hold out a hand.

"Wait. Shush. Can we get closer?" She tilts the cloud and we zoom into the square. Maysilee's face lights up at the sight of Ree and Jack together, and of Hazelle and Calvin.

"Yes, they got together? I called that in seventh grade! Hey, is that Milana? With Tom Undersee?" She smiles hugely at the sight of her twin.

"Wow, that one's out of nowhere!" We laugh and look around the scene, pointing out people that we knew. We make faces at Mama and Daddy, and we both tear up at the sight of little Rylan mounting the stage. "He's so little. We used to babysit him, with Ree, remember?"

"Oh he was too cute!" I freeze. Absolutely freeze. My smile slides off my face and I forget how to speak for a moment. "Allie? You okay?"

"Zoom in, right there please." She zooms in on Haymitch's face and Maysilee stops laughing as well.

_What happened to you, Mitchie?_

His eyes are clouded, their usual bright gray vanished. He's slumped over in his seat with a crooked smirk. His hair is longer than I've ever seen it and it looks like he hasn't washed his clothes in a few days.

"What...what..." Maysilee's loss for words sums up my own speechlessness.

"He looks like a wreck! Go back, I need to see what happened to him." We slide backward through time, and in going to backward we see Haymitch go from the sunken man to the vibrant youth that I remember. The cause is clear.

"_Liquor_?" I can't believe this. I simply cannot believe this. We both agreed that people who depend on substances are pathetic.

"That's...I don't..."

"He's going to kill himself drinking like that," I whisper, pointing at the scene now playing before us. Haymitch lurches around the bar, a bottle clenched in each fist. He stops, sways, and vomits on the floor. "He's dead."

"Let's not watch this anymore." Maysilee pushes the cloud and it floats high, high out of reach. I'm rendered speechless. If I was alive, we'd be over. I love him dearly, but addicts have always been the turn-off for me.

"Wanna see where we live? Come on, I'll show you!" Maysilee tries to distract me by showing me the white building where we live. Heaven, apparently, isn't much different from Earth. We still feel hunger and exhaustion. Maysilee takes delight in my shock at the lack of bathrooms.

"Where do we go?" I ask incredulously.

"We don't!" Her eyes sparkle with mischief and informs me that we don't have any bodily functions down there anymore.

"That's...different." My enthusiasm is forced and half-hearted. I can't get over the fact that Mitchie's taken a bad turn but...

I'm dead.

We've been broken up unwillingly, but it's still happened.

I must force myself not to care.

I take a deep breath, and exhale slowly. I take every happy memory I have with my boy and shove them down, deep into a locked place in my heart. I must not think of him as what he is, but what I knew. I smile, genuinely.

"So May, give me a real tour! Show me everything you can. We've got plenty of time, right?" She looks relieved at my shift in moods but doesn't ask why.

I must not care.

_I must not care_.

"Okay! We'll go meet people. Everyone's so cool here, nobody dislikes each other because there isn't a point, right?" She laughs and tugs me along by my wrist. I follow obediently, feeling somewhat lighter now that I've locked Haymitch away in a special place in me.

**Theme Seven! I wasn't sure how to write this...I did my best :)**


	8. Theme 8: Innocence

**Theme 8: Innocence**

**Haymitch's Point of View**

"Mommy! What is going on? Why we have to be here?" I tug at her hand and she scoops me up into her arms. We're standing by the town square, listening to the lady from the Capitol read something.

"Sshh, Mitchie. You need to be quiet!" She presses my head against her shoulder and I pout. I'm bored! Mommy told me that we were going to the square today. I wanted to go to the Meadow and play with Jackie, but she said no, not today. Today was _important_, she said.

"Mom-ee! Can we go home please?"

"Mitchie! Be quiet!" She glares at me and for a moment I'm quiet. I wiggle until she puts me down and try to walk around. With a sharp yank, she pulls me back by my ear.

"_Owch_!" I yelp, and tears begin to well up behind my eyes. I rub furiously at them. I'm three years old! Daddy says that big boys don't cry like babies. Daddy says three years old is old enough to know not to cry at anything.

Daddy didn't have to come today.

"Mommy?" I whisper. She sighs and bends down. I move her hair aside so I can whisper and not be loud. "How come's Daddy didn't have to come with us here?" Her lips tighten and the area around her nose flushes like always when Daddy does something that is a no-no.

"Daddy is here, sweetie. He just didn't want to stand with us. See?" She points to a crowd by the stocks, all men. I can barely make out the broad figure of Daddy before another man steps in front of him.

"Can I go stand with Daddy? I'm a man!" She smiles and shushes me again, keeping a tight grip on my hand. The Capitol lady picks out slips of paper and two older kids go onstage.

"Are they getting prizes? I want a prize! How come's I can't have a prize?" I whine. Mommy scoops me up again and I lace my fingers around her neck for support. She grumbles about something as we push through the people to where Daddy is. Mommy taps him on the back and he turns quickly.

"Oh, it's you two. Hi, Mitch, Maria. Whatcha want?"

"We're going home. You need to explain something to _your son_." Mommy hisses the last words, like my kitty does. My kitty's name is Spotty and he's gray. Like my eyes and Mommy's dress and everything at home.

"I'll do it later, Maria, I'm busy."

"Doing what, betting? _Your son_ just asked me whether those kids," she points to the prize kids, "were winning prizes. Like this is a _game_."

"Maria..." Daddy rubs the space between his eyes and groans. "Fine. I lost anyway." One of Daddy's friends holds his hand out for money and Daddy tiredly places a stack of coins in the out-streched palm. Mommy's eyes bulge.

"Will!" She's very angry, but doesn't say anything at the look in Daddy's eyes. I cower into her shoulder. He roughly pulls me from Mommy and we start to go home.

"So Mitch, I hear you think them kids is winning prizes?" He asks. I nod.

"Yeah! I want a prize! How come's I can't-" He cuts me off.

"Them's ain't prizes, kiddo. Them kids is going to die."

"Well how come's the Cappytol lady was smiling and clapping? What does 'die' mean?" I reach up and pull off his floppy hat and put it over my head. It falls over my eyes and ears.I feel Daddy laugh.

"Oh, adults do crazy things sometimes, son. Go off and play now, I've got things to do." He takes the hat off my head and I see him wink at another lady, not Mommy. I get set down and pushed toward home.

"Bye, Daddy! I see you tonight!" He doesn't respond.

I still want a prize like those kids. They're lucky. I never get prizes.


End file.
